Gimmick Ratings - What Affects Them?

[James Casey]

So I've been wondering about gimmick ratings lately, particualrly after my user character bombed in a Unique Charismatic role but is pulling off the Nature Boy gimmick pretty decently. I'd always thought they were bound solely on the worker's ability to pull them off, but lately other posters have suggested that fed settings can affect them too. So, can anyone suggest what settings (company/wrestler/other) would affect how well a gimmick can work?

[Wildcat]

For one the higher the cult value your fed has the more subtle and difficult the gimmick must be, adversely the higher your sports entertainment value the less subtle and difficult the gimmicks. Pure feds don't need gimmicks at all. PS. Also not 100% on this one but common sense infers that Traditional feds want realistic, legitimate and unique gimmicks with little risk, hardcore fans what crazy, cool, ****y and weird gimmicks with high risk and Sports Entertainment/Cult feds want a blend of all the styles that fit the promotion's values.

[D-Lyrium]

Everything under (and inclusive of) the sun has an effect. :p Seriously. The subtlety depends on your Mainstream/Cult settings AFAIK. Risque affects how much Risk you're "allowed" (Riskier gimmicks won't work as well with lower Risque settings. You try playing a Stoner if the promotors won't allow you to make drug references :p). You can still use risky gimmicks in (say) NYCW; it's just that they'll need to be toned down so much that they'll suck. Stoner minus drugs, or Pyromaniac without fire, for example. Racist without any racism. You get the idea. Doesn't quite have the same effect. You can't really hate a racist guy who never makes any racist comments, just on the strength of the fact that you're told he's racist. If you turn up the risque a bit, and let your Pyromaniac 'imply' that he likes playing with fire, it'll go down a bit better. If you turn it right up and he comes to the ring with a blowtorch to 'The Fire And The Fury' by Firewind, that's clearly going to work much better. I think Difficulty relies on how well the worker is at playing that type of gimmick (I.e., 'Man Beast' is a B- difficuly Brute gimmick, so to play it effectively the worker would need to be pretty good at playing a brute. Whereas Biker is only E difficulty, so as long as he's sort of brutish he'll be fine). Then of course there's the individual settings. Like 'Impressionist' requires a lot of Acting skill. So if the worker's acting skill isn't high enough, the gimmick rating will be reduced, because he simply can't play that gimmick very well. That's not to say that a guy with B- acting will fail completely at an Impressionist gimmick, just that he probably won't be AS good as someone with more skill. Then there's a random factor on top of that. Even if you get the right worker to play the right gimmick with the right product, it still might flop ('American Badass' Undertaker, 'Legend Killer' Randy Orton, Mordecai, etc).